Pacific Ship and Shore

Why Not a Callaghan-Scott Historical Center at Land’s End in San Francisco?

Heber A. Holbrook, Past President

With all of the activity going on at the National Park Service holdings on the waterfront at Seal Rocks, where Sutro Baths once so proudly stood forth nearly a hundred years ago and is now undergoing a massive resurrection by the National Park Service, nothing has been said by the National Park Service about what is a stone’s throw away on a cliff known as Land’s End, where the USS SAN FRANCISCO Monument has sat in all but forgotten repose for half a century.

The shell-holed bridge remnant of the cruiser U.S.S. SAN FRANCISCO, erected as a monument at Land’s End in 1950 (which was then part of the Army’s Presidio of San Francisco, but now for many years has been a part of the National Park Service holdings, on land which is identified as part of historic Fort Miley, under the NPS) has been one of our nation’s most overlooked and forgotten remaining artifacts of one of history’s most significant naval battles.

A few years ago I first suggested, and have repeated that suggestion several times since, the most recent being at the CA-38 Monument service in May of this year (2004), a Callaghan-Scott Memorial Center at Land’s End. There’s plenty of land room there for a reception center. Maybe a little walkway could lead up to it from the Cliff House restaurant and Sutro Baths when those projects of the NPS are completed. .

It would be nice to think that the National Park Service and the new veteran organization being set up by San Francisco businessman Johnny Johnson and his support group for the CA-38 Monument might have something like that in mind as they continue to work with the NPS to refurbish the monument and surrounding area. Also, a short brochure by the National Park Service about the CA-38 Monument, like the other ones you see on the racks in hotels and visitor centers, would be nice—and a permanent sign down at the end of Geary Street where the roadway leads into Fort Miley, to point the way to the CA-38 Monument, seems more than appropriate.

The National Park Service, always short of money and short of time, always with more projects on its plate than it can possibly handle, relies heavily on public service organizations for funding assistance, such as, for example, resulted in the NPS facilities now at former Pressy Field, where gallant Army fliers of World War I vintage trained and flew off to the war in Europe; and more recently the current resurrection going on, with public support through several local nonprofit service organizations, of the Cliff House Restaurant and Sutro Baths, all part of the NPS holdings, with construction having begun a couple of years ago. The National Park Service is mandated—meaning told by the Congressional committee that oversees the funding approved for the NPS each year,—to establish .partnerships. with special interest non-profit groups to share in the costs of creating and maintaining national park facilities.

The U.S.S. SAN FRANCISCO (CA-38) is, in terms of individual medals and awards to members of her crew, the most decorated warship, ever, in U.S. history, all brought about as a result of the naval actions at Guadalcanal on 12-13, 1942. The statistics: 4 Medals of Honor; 31 Navy Crosses; 21 Silver Stars; and the Presidential Unit Citation. Concerning the Night Naval Battle at Guadalcanal on 13 November 1942, Fleet Admiral Ernest J. King, the wartime Chief of Naval Operations and the Commander-in-Chief of the United States Fleet, said: .The action, which lasted 24 minutes, . . . was one of the most furious sea battles ever fought.. [The U.S. Navy at War-1941 -1945, p. 60]

Renowned historian Samuel E. Morison, called it . . . . .the wildest, most desperate sea fight since Jutland.. And of the two American admirals who died in it, he said, .Let none deny praise, glory and honor to those who fell on Friday the Bloody Thirteenth with two great seamen and gallant gentlemen, Daniel J. Callaghan and Norman Scott.. [Volume 5, The Struggle for Guadalcanal, The History of United States Naval Operations in World War II, p.258.]

President Franklin D. Roosevelt, the World War II President of the United States, said:

The SAN FRANCISCO sailed right into the enemy fleet --right through the enemy fleet --her guns blazing . . . . At point-blank range she engaged an enemy battleship --heavily her superior in size and fire-power. She silenced this battleship's big guns . . . Admiral Callaghan, my close personal friend, and many of his gallant officers and men gave their lives in this battle. The commander of the task force of which the SAN FRANCISCO was a part has recommended that she be the first of our Navy's vessels to be decorated for outstanding service.

Rear Admiral Daniel J. Callaghan, killed aboard the USS SAN FRANCISCO and Rear Admiral Norman Scott, killed aboard the USS ATLANTA, both in this engagement, are the only two flag officers killed in warfare between surface ships in the entire history of the United States Navy.

Subscribing to Samuel Morison’s observation, it seems reasonable that somewhere in this land there should be a suitable remembrance of all of the thirteen American warships that sailed into harm’s way on that dark night of more than 60 years ago.

None of those thirteen ships --the cruisers SAN FRANCISCO, ATLANTA, PORTLAND, HELENA, and JUNEAU; and the destroyers CUSHING, LAFFEY, STERETT, O’BANNON, AARON WARD, BARTON, MONSSEN, and FLETCHER should ever be forgotten.